Air quality has become an increasing concern. The air inside homes, offices, and other buildings can be more polluted than the air outside. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that indoor air can be two to five times more polluted than the air outdoors. The air inside your home may be polluted by lead, formaldehyde, fire-retardants, radon, smoke, even volatile chemicals from fragrances used in conventional cleaners. Further there are allergens in homes and buildings that includes microscopic dust mites, mold and pet dander. Children, people with asthma, and the elderly may be especially sensitive to indoor pollutants.
Indoor allergens and irritants have become much more important in recent years, because people are spending more time indoors. Also, there has been an increase in the number and severity of allergies. Therefore there is an increased need to have duct work cleaned in HVAC systems and cleaner HVAC systems in general. There is also a need for quick and reliable methods and devices for testing and qualifying the quality of air within the home.
One previously known air testing device used a flat sampler patch attachable with pins to the air filter of the HVAC duct system. This tested the air entering the HVAC unit, but not specifically the air exiting the HVAC unit. Other test kits involved testing for mold and fungal elements or spores by swabbing a surface to be tested. This test only captured mold and fungal elements or spores that had settled out of the air and onto a surface and not airborne substances. Other test systems required the use of a fan to draw particles onto a collection surface.
The Jossam company discloses a flat sampler patch attached by pins onto an air filter (the filter being disposed in the HVAC system air intake). Josamm also discusses a fan method of testing, which is a flat patch sampler attached to a fan to test indoor home or business environments. <www.jossam.biz>. The Health Goods company describes a health check system designed to collect mold and fungal elements/spores that settles out of the air onto a surface. The user swabs the surface to be tested, performs the test and sends the test sample in a postage prepaid envelope to an accredited laboratory for analysis. <www.healthgoods.com>. Prisim Analytical Technologies, Inc., discloses a home air check system that has a small pump and associated items to capture particulate in the air flow. <www.homeaircheck.com>. The Prisim kit identifies over 400 volatile organic compounds, formaldehyde, growing mold, secondhand smoke and more, and offers an easy-to-use test kit, wherein after particulate collection, the kit is sent to an accredited laboratory.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,079,474 shows a hand pump with a slide. When the user pulls air into the cylinder, the particulate in the air is captured by the slide at the end of the plunger in the cylinder. The system tests for dust or microbic content of air. The collector is a pump consists of a cylinder open at one end. At its other end is a removable cap. A plunger is movable in the cylinder. Slots in a slide are disposed crosswise in a tube. The slots have a suitable adhesive substance to hold the dust or microbic particles. The slide is then removed and the slide is examined.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,103,201 discloses an air freshener with a clip for a HVAC vent. U.S. Pat. No. 6,030,427 discloses a replaceable air filter apparatus for filtering the air in the home. The HVAC filter casing has a hinge on a register that controls the flow of air through the duct work. Korean Patent No. KR 20080092192 discloses a collector base plate for collecting microorganisms in air. The base plate has an adhesive coating. A motor drives air through nozzle and onto the collector base plate. The adhesive compositions coated on one side of the base plates capture particles in the discharged air.
Swiss Patent No. CH 684610 discloses a multistage aerosol particle collector encapsulated in a metal tube. The tube end has a suction cap and an orifice and a suction nozzle. The nozzle sucks in air and the air has suspended particles. U.S. Pat. No. 8,668,758 discloses a nonwoven filtration media comprising a tackifier is added to the nonwoven filtration media to provide a sticky or adhesive surface on the fibers, has an advantageous combination of stiffness, foldability, efficiency and the ability to retain a fold.